1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a print server in a printing system which executes distributed processing of printing processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is provided a printing system in which a print server generates print data by receiving a printing request from a client, and then an image forming apparatus executes printing processing by receiving the print data. In the above-described printing system, for example, when the client sends a printing cancellation request, it is desirable that the print server promptly executes cancellation of the printing processing. However, if the print server exists in the internet over a firewall, the print server cannot notify the image forming apparatus of the cancellation of the printing processing. Therefore, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-227624 discusses a technique for appropriately executing the cancellation of the printing processing by changing a determination of the printing cancellation processing according to a generation status or a transfer status of the print data.
With the widespread use of the above-described print server connected thereto via the internet, there has been provided a printing system which executes distributed processing of a print job by managing a number of printing devices with a plurality of print servers. In the printing system, printing requests are distributed to the print servers through a typical load distribution apparatus known as a “load balancer”.
In the above-described distributed processing-type printing system, various requests received from a client are distributed to each of the print servers through the load balancer. Although the load balancer can allocate the requests to the print servers at high speed, it is not possible for the load balancer to execute complex processing such as controlling a printing order or identifying the print server that is processing a print job as a target of a printing cancellation request.
Accordingly, it can be considered that the load balancer is configured to distribute the printing cancellation request received from the client to each of the print servers as well. When the print server has received the printing cancellation request distributed by the load balancer, the print server has to transfer the printing cancellation request to the print server that is executing the processing of the print job as a target of that printing cancellation request. However, in the technique discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2011-227624, the printing cancellation request cannot be transferred because the distributed processing-type printing system is not taken into consideration.